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Me duele el cuello.

Me duele el cuello.
My neck hurts.
From Lesson 49:Verbs like gustar (encantar, doler)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Me duele el cuello.

Why is it "el cuello" (the neck) instead of "mi cuello" (my neck)?
In Spanish, when you talk about body parts, you usually use the definite article (el, la, los, las) rather than a possessive word like mi (my). Because you already used me to say the hurting is happening to you, it is obvious whose neck it is!
How does the grammar of "Me duele" work?
Doler (to hurt) works just like gustar. The literal translation of this sentence is "The neck hurts to me." The word me tells us who is experiencing the pain, and duele is the verb describing what the neck is doing.
Since "me" means "to me", what is the actual subject of the sentence?
The subject is el cuello (the neck). Even though it comes at the end of the sentence, the neck is the thing doing the action of hurting.
Why is it spelled "duele" instead of "dole"?
Doler is an "o to ue" stem-changing verb. When you conjugate it, the o in the root of the word changes to ue, which is why it becomes duele.
What if multiple parts of my body hurt, like my legs? Would I still use "duele"?
No, you would need to change the verb to match the plural subject. If your legs hurt, you would say Me duelen las piernas. Just like with gustar, the verb changes to match the number of things doing the action.

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